Archive for May 12th, 2010

As a former Muslim, a convert to Christianity, Reformed and one who Muslims have attempted to discredit as an ex-Muslim, I struggle with this war against ex-Muslims, which Muslims instigated and Christians are perpetuating and perfecting. Some Christians have accused me of “skirting” around the issue surrounding Dr. Ergun Caner because I have not “publicly” stated my stance, while in fact I have. Others have accused me of lying. One person even went to the extent of posting a comment “on my behalf” using my name and URL on the Christianity Today website attempting to ruin my credibility. (Thanks to CT for investigating and taking action!) This has become an emotionally charged and a very serious matter!

The way the attacks on Dr. Caner have played out is mind-boggling to Christians who are involved in outreach to Muslims. I am a part of a network of 200 plus professionals and laypersons that is directly involved or facilitate outreach to Muslims in Canada and the United States. So far, everyone I have talked with is glad that Liberty University carried out its initial investigation sans the comments Dr. Elmer Towns made in the Christianity Todayarticle. There is a second investigation in progress and let us keep Liberty University and all those involved—including Dr. Caner and his family—in our prayers.

My fellow Christians, Muslims and their sympathizers—I am not implying any Christian here—want this issue to drag on, and anything short of a public apology from Dr. Caner, possibly with an audio or video available, is an unacceptable to them. Since they have a lot of time and possibly money invested in this endeavor, they want to put an “icing” on their cake with evidence. It is unbiblical that this issue is being “juried” and judged” on blogsphere, with Muslims as some of the jurors and judges.

This issue would not have gained any traction had Dr. James White and Dr. Ergun Caner been in good terms. I have met neither of these men but have spoken once to Dr. White on the Dividing Line. There are a few instances where he has spoken dismissively of Dr. Caner on the radio program. For instance, on April 20, 2010, he said, “I have had no overt fascination with Ergun Caner since then,” just because the debate in 2006 [podcast track 21:50-24:35] failed to materialize.

I emailed him with my concerns soon after the program had aired; bringing to his attention some of the charges he had discussed on-air regarding Dr. Caner observing Muslim prayer in a high school bathroom. When he failed to respond, I called into his radio program because he had blogged that he was going to discuss Dr. Caner again and would be taking calls. He dismissed [podcast track 43:45-45:50] the scripture (Galatians 6:1-2) in regards to his discussion of Dr. Caner on-air and told me that it did not apply because he had to go public with the story due to Dr. Caner’s failure to answer his questions and Dr. Caner being a public figure.

Dr. White must have had this issue on his mind for quite some time because he misconstrued what I had said regarding how, while interacting with the audience, I had mispronounced Arabic words or recited the wrong chapter of the Qur’an and he concluded that that just proved his point that the Caner Brothers embellished their testimony, “making things up,” because of the need supposedly was great for expert on Islam after 9/11, even terming it “preacher exaggeration” while I wasn’t implying that. I was trying to help him realize that it was possible that Dr. Caner mispronounced Arabic words.

It dawned on me during our discussion that his Muslim scholar friend Shiekk Yasir Qadhi, who had emailed him, would give the benefit of the doubt to Dr. Caner and wouldn’t draw a conclusion because he did not know if his prayer rug was waterproof. That was when I realized that Dr. White has an underlying problem, perhaps beyond these accusations of Dr. Caner being a liar.

I am a Reformed Christian and I am utterly ashamed of Dr. White. In my opinion, he is a disgrace to the Reformed faith—sola scriptura—because of his meddling in this matter and his disregard of the scripture. He is tacitly helping Muslims with their war against Muslim converts to Christianity. He even is going a step further in perfecting it by discussing Dr. Emir Caner on-air yesterday. His main issue with Emir is that he “erroneously” stated that Jesus was mentioned in the Qur’an 93 times [podcast track 52:00-56:00]. Would that prove him as a fake expert on Islam when he was quoting John Esposito, Professor of International Affairs and Islamic Studies and the director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, who says, “Jesus is referred to in ninety-three verses of the Quran” (The Oxford History of Islam, pages 306-307)?

Carl Medearas says in his book Muslims, Christians, and Jesus, that, “The Qur’an mentions Jesus almost one hundred times…” Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2008, 66. Does that make Mr. Medearas, the most visible “international expert in the field of Arab-American and Muslim-Christian relations,” a fake expert on Islam? Jesus is mentioned by name 25 times but he is referred to directly or indirectly “almost one hundred times” in the Qur’an and that does not make one a fake expert on Islam. Muslim scholars read every chapter of Mr. Medearas’ book prior to its publication and concluded that it was “fair” to Islam (page 20). This is one other instance that shows Dr. White has a grudge or jealousy issue, partly due to that scheduled debate that never took place.

The initial issue was whether the Caner Brothers were fake ex-Muslims. None of the evidence has proven that. Court documents have revealed that they indeed were brought up as Muslims. That debunked Muslims and some Christians’ initial assertion. There is even an eyewitness and some of us dismiss him because he has not divulged enough information. They now want us to focus on the lies and inconsistencies in the testimonies but as Christians we should not forget that when any believer—unless some of these Christian critics think Dr. Caner is not a Christian—asks for forgiveness, we believe that he or she is forgiven. Even God forgives and forgets our sins on account of the sacrifice of his beloved Son on the cross. Why don’t we set aside our pride and forgive our brother Dr. Ergun Caner?

Muslims would like to make Drs. Ergun and Emir Caner the “face” of their “fake ex-Muslims” propaganda. It wasn’t just by coincidence that they stumbled upon their testimonies. There are at least 10 different “fake ex-Muslims” videos—mostly based on these converts’ accent pronouncing some Arabic words—on YouTube that do not involve the Caner Brothers. The fact that these brothers are leaders in the Christian higher education is a constant reminder to these Muslims that Islam is under threat. If they weren’t, Muslims would not have resorted to these tactics.